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iroZn wrote:I've been trying to keep up at least 10 k's a week. I usually run over the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Anyone else run over interesting landmarks/places?

Over the summer I went running in NYC along the west side greenway with a friend of mine. I ran up from 14th street (low-middle of the island), met him running down from Columbia at about 100th street (much of the way up the island, although people tend to discount the fact that it actually goes twice past that in a little narrow spit thingy) around the USS Intrepid, which is parked in the water next to the path. One day, he decided he wanted to re-enact the run from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out where you run along the island, so we ran all the way down to battery park, observed the statue of liberty, felt awkward with no shirts around bankers in suits, and then ran back to our office around 14th. 12 miles! I hurt a lot after that.

Been dealing with a leg injury pretty much on and off all summer; finally convinced myself to get an x-ray done even though it hasn't bothered me the last couple weeks. The way I'm playing it, if I don't hear anything from the doctor about the x-rays, I'll assume that they were negative and the injury was a shin splint, which leads me to my question: Anyone have any tips for shin splint treatment/prevention? I do the rest, ice and compression routine when I get pain, and I'm on anti-inflammatories for a week and a half, see if that helps. Anything in the way of exercises or adjustments I can do? I have a tendency to strike pretty hard with the heel when I run, if that helps anyone.

Cheers everyone, happy running!

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Samsoneffect wrote: Anything in the way of exercises or adjustments I can do?

One of my friends who was a pretty hardcore runner started to get some serious problems in one of his legs, shin splints, cramps and the like. He went to the physio and the physio asked him if he was running the same loop every time he ran (on the road, he didn't usually run on treadmills). Anyways the physio told him to change the direction he ran the loop every other time. All the problems cleared up in his leg . It turned out that running in one direction around the loop would cause him to put more strain on one of his legs as he took more right turns. If you do run the same loop every time this could definitely help you.

So I'm back in action, and back to working towards my 5K goal of 20 minutes, with a race in march.

The tack I'm taking is starting at 2K, which was a couple weeks ago, and go up 200m per workout day in a week, then do the same pattern, but up everything by 200m the next week. No increases of more than 10% from one day to the next, and no increases of more than 10% from one week to the next. To give an example, the first week was 2K on Monday, 2.2K on Wednesday, 2.4K on Friday, then the next week, bump it up to 2.2, 2.4, and 2.6. I'm now on week 3, and about to start run 3-2 which is 2.6 km. I'm trying to keep it fairly close to race pace as well, I've been running the last few runs at about 4:05 per km and it's been getting steadily faster, and with steadily stronger finishes. I also just got a new pair of runners that I'm anxious to try out which are better for my feet since my arch collapses a bit, and I also have a pair of Vibrams that I'm experimenting with. It's an interesting feel, those ones, very different, and will take some getting used to, but they felt good the first run on them. Only doing about one km at a time with those right now.

Either way, my legs are feeling noticeably better and in less pain, so things are looking up!

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Okay, after I started running again after the injury in my right 'backside of the thigh' - I've noticed that a muscle at the lower part of my left shin is starting to hurt when I run. It is decidedly unpleasant, and means that I can't really run more than 3km (it starts to appear at 2.7), which I do in 15 min. though.

Edit: I should probably mention that it's the *outside* of the shin that hurts - and that I'm in a fairly good shape, before getting injured (meant three weeks break) I ran 5 km in 25 min. without any trouble.

My plan is to stop running as regularly (instead of doing it every time I hit the gym, only do it every third time or so), and use a exercise bike and cross machine's to warm up for those other days. Running is a combined warm up for strength training and a goal in itself.

I suspect my recent changing of shoes for my everyday use (I walk 2.5 km from my apartment to my office and back every day) to shoes that are a lot less absorbing is the cause, so I've switched away from them again.

Is this good enough, or should I stop completely from running for 2-3 weeks? I'd really rather not do that if I don't have to.

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It doesn't seem to match the description of shinsplints when I look it up

It appears that shinsplints is a constant pain, this only happens after 12-13 min. of running, and disappears very quickly after ceasing the running, and it doesn't plague me at any other time than when I'm running. It also seems from descriptions that the pain is one the inside of the leg (closest to the other leg) where mine is entirely on the other side.

But I really don't know exactly what it is.

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Three days rest and more impact absorbing shoes seems to have done wonders, the onset was delayed by 200m, meaning that I barely got hit by it when I stopped at 3km. I'm still going to stick to the "only running every third time, and only 3km at 15min. these times" for a couple of weeks to be sure it has a chance to get truly well - no sense in acquiring a injury just to progress a little faster.

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I used to get this when I ran as a kid; maybe that's why I never really got into running. I suspect there was something wrong with my running mechanics. Anyway, I'd try foam-rolling the frell out of it after every run.

Anyone have experience with the Vibram Five Fingers? I'd first read about them in the book "Born to Run" (really loved this book, by the way) and filed them in my "Maybe another day" ... uh, file. But anyway, some friends and I got on the topic recently and their firsthand experience was very positive. Unfortunately, they run at about $85 a pop, but I'm definitely taking a serious look at them now. Any thoughts on here?

Yeah but I want a 5 toed option that has some sort of material covering the toes so they just look like a regular, if not pretty shoe. I am wondering now though would the shoe you listed be good for squats, I keep wondering if I should upgrade my chuck taylors.

Three days rest and more impact absorbing shoes seems to have done wonders, the onset was delayed by 200m, meaning that I barely got hit by it when I stopped at 3km. I'm still going to stick to the "only running every third time, and only 3km at 15min. these times" for a couple of weeks to be sure it has a chance to get truly well - no sense in acquiring a injury just to progress a little faster.

As a couple points to try, one would be to try and be conscious of your foot-strikes. You want to try and land more toward the forefoot than the back, and do standing toe-raises every day to strengthen the dorsiflexors in your legs (the muscle on the front of your shin). That ended up making a big difference for me in addition to switching to Superfeet. Strengthening those muscles helps you to keep your feet from slapping the ground, and gets them landing a bit more softly.

For my part, switching BACK to my Superfeet after having had knee trouble seems to be working, I'm going from pain to just general stiffness, and even that was probably just from having spent an entire afternoon standing at work. I am appoint.

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So right now, I'm running three times a week. Is there a general recommendation on cross-training on the non-running days, for example, lifting or swimming? Would that impede my progress with the running or enhance it? I'm planning on doing a 5K race around mid-October and I want to be good for it, rather than wanking myself for it by overworking. I'm currently doing 1-2 rest days a week.

Thoughts, fellow xkcdians?

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Lifting: NO, you don't need any more muscles then you need to run a cross. More weight means more energy needed to finish the race. Example: Look at the difference between either Gay/Bolt and Bekele/Rudisha. The less muscle you have the longer you can run (not true but you get the point (I hope))

Swimming: Can be good since it is really good to help you with your breathing and general condition. However swimming more then once a week might have other effects on the running. Since you use your muscles in another way then you are used to when running and you will be sore everytime you start your training. (For the first few trainings that is)

My suggestion if you want to add swimming to your schedule you might want to place it before a days rest

Example Mon: RunTue: SwimWed: restThu: RunFri: restSat: RunSun: Rest/Run (depending on how you feel)(Free to change around to your own likings ofcourse )

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Anyone got advice on 'tapering'? I've got a half marathon next weekend. I want to get a last > 10k in tomorrow then I guess I need to be careful next week. Then again, the last couple of halfs I ran I didn't give up running the week before, just ran a couple of 5-8ks, but then I'm getting older. Any advice?

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I've recently joined a gym and taken my running indoors. Once thing I've noticed about my gym's treadmills is that, despite the nearly 20 seconds it takes for the treadmill to run up to the full speed I'm asking of it at the beginning of my runs (presumably costing me approximately 10 seconds on my times), the times it gives me at the end of my runs are always exactly what they should be if there was no run up at all.

For example, today I did:

(1.5mi @8.8mph) + (0.25mi @9.3mph) + (0.25 @10.1mph)

Assuming zero time for acceleration (and that I don't suck at math) this is:

(90/8.8 )+(15/9.3)+(15/10.1) = ~13.325, or ~13m19.5s

Lo and behold, as my run ticked over to 2 miles, and I pressed stopped, what did the time read? 13:20 on the dot.

Originally, I was assuming that the treadmill was just running at a tiny fraction of a mile an hour faster than indicated, to make up that lost time at the beginning. But then I realized that isn't realistic.

For example, today I looked down at 1.03 miles to see a time of 7:03 on the clock. I.E. approximately a pace of 6:51 per mile (give or take a couple seconds, depending on where I was in that hundredth of a mile). Well, since I did that first 1.03 miles at 8.8mph, or a pace of 6:49/mi, that means the treadmill would have had to have made up the entire difference within the first mile (at the very most).

To do that, it would have had to have been running at at least 9mph, instead of 8.8. I find it pretty unlikely that the machine would operate at such a significantly different speed than requested over any really significant distance at all. (Not to mention that, if this was really what was going on, I'd certainly feel a speed change of that magnitude once it made up the time and settled back down to the pace you told it to go.)

The other possibility is that it is just fudging the numbers to give you the benefit of the doubt. To gain those ten seconds back within a mile, all the machine would have to do is tell you you had run 1.000 miles when you'd really only run 0.975 miles. Chopping off two and a half hundredths of a mile would hardly be noticeable, I assume.

At the end of the day it hardly matters - if having all my times be 10 seconds slower than I thought really bothered me, I could just run 10 seconds longer at the end of my run, when it's already up to speed, and consider my (for example) 2 mile run to be 0.025 to 2.025, instead of 0 to 2.

I'm just personally curious if anyone knows how treadmills are usually programmed to deal with this sort of thing. Are there other possibilities I'm not considering? Either way, there is, beyond doubt, some sort of chicanery going on within that thing's innards.

Plus, I'm pretty sure that most other treadmills I've ever run on just make you eat the lost time from the beginning (to hit a given objective, I've always had to set the mill for a tenth of a mile an hour or two faster than should be necessary).

I think most treadmills don't count distance as a function of instantaneous treadmill speed over time, but rather whatever the speed is set to over time. Yet another reason you need to get outside and off that treadmill!

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Izawwlgood wrote:I think most treadmills don't count distance as a function of instantaneous treadmill speed over time, but rather whatever the speed is set to over time.

EDIT: entire post invalidated by a dawn-rises-over-marblehead moment.

I think I know what's going on. And I think you're right, if I'm understanding you correctly.

Will report back Monday after I verify it.

Izawwlgood wrote:Yet another reason you need to get outside and off that treadmill!

I ran outside all winter long. I'm enjoying the change of pace. And running is feeling good for the first time in a long time. So I'm going to keep with the treadmill for now.

If I make enough progress that I start being really proud of my times, then I'll take it back outside and join you serious runners. (As I often tell people when they ask if I'm a runner: "I run, I'm not a runner.")

I wish I could run outside more often, but I don't usually get my runs in until night time and don't really feel safe running outside after dark where I live. It's nice that I have access to weights as well and can immediately jump to those after my run. But man, by mile three I'm bored and know that I have many more to go.

I think you have to be a certain level of runner to get bored with running; it's far too viscerally engaging of an activity for me.

My inclination is to say that I've never run far enough to get bored, but even in that one brief period of my life where I had worked up to 5 miles (nearly 40 minutes a go) it never felt close to an issue.

Thing is, for me, it's a good thing when I can succeed in just zoning out. I think it's a defense mechanism. If you could rig up a system that could provide complete sensory deprivation (sight and sound, anyway) while running, I'd use that. Just put all my focus on breathing and pain management.